Archive for the ‘Darth Vader’ Tag

Star Wars was designed by Mike Hally and released by Atari in 1983. The player pilots Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter in the final battle from the 1977 film. First the player must shoot TIE fighters (in later stages including Darth Vader’s) as they fly toward the Death Star. In the next stage the player shoots towers and turrets on the surface of the Death Star. In the final stage the player flies down the Death Star trench, avoiding incoming fire and dodging catwalks across the trench, and finally firing the shot into the exhaust port, destroying the Death Star. Later levels repeat basically the same stages, but add more challenge.

Star Wars uses a vector monitor rather than a raster monitor, meaning that rather than using blocky pixels, the images on the screen are created by drawing lines from point to point. It uses several digitized voice samples from the movie in addition to the game’s music and sound effects. The game also uses a unique flight yoke controller with grips on both sides.